I Tested My Own Advice for 90 Days
By Sue Pendleton, Founder
A few months ago, I started doubting myself. Not just my own marketing. I was beginning to question the larger premise behind ENSOhello. Does consistently sharing your work really make a difference? Can a marketing practice actually help an artist build momentum over time? Or was I creating a system that sounded good in theory but would not hold up in real life?
So I decided to test it.
For 90 days, I would follow the kind of advice I had been building ENSOhello around. I would consistently share my art, pay attention to the practice, and see what happened.
Not perfectly. Not every day. But with real intention.
The Test
I focused on my personal art accounts for 90 days. I posted more consistently. I shared finished paintings, works in progress, plein air experiences, studio moments, workshops, and some of the thoughts and stories surrounding the work.
I tried not to obsess over every individual post. The point was not to chase a sudden spike or make constant changes based on what happened that day. The point was to give the practice enough time to create a meaningful pattern.
At the end of the 90 days, I looked at the results. Not before. But at the 90-day mark.
Facebook had grown significantly across almost every measurement. Views, interactions, visits, and follows were all up. More importantly, I could feel that something was working there even before I saw the numbers. People were responding, commenting, and showing genuine interest in my art.
Instagram was more complicated. Some numbers were up. Others were down. My content received more views and interactions, but reach and follower growth had declined.
My first reaction could easily have been: Instagram didn’t work. But that wasn’t actually what the numbers were saying. They were telling me that Facebook and Instagram currently contain two very different audiences.
My Facebook art page is newer and smaller, but the people who follow it appear to be genuinely interested in my work. Because it’s devoted only to my Art Business. My Instagram audience is larger and has accumulated over many years, for many different reasons. A large follower count does not necessarily mean a concentrated or highly engaged art audience.
The Instagram results were not a failure. They were information.
Then the Analysis Became Overwhelming
I asked ChatGPT to help me review the analytics and plan the next 90 days. At first, the advice was thorough. Too thorough.
There were recommendations to examine reach, non-follower reach, profile visits, follows, shares, saves, engagement, post formats, captions, opening images, keywords, hashtags, and more. Every metric seemed to lead to another metric. I could feel myself shutting down.
Every fiber in my being was saying: Run.
I am not a numbers person. I am an artist and a pattern thinker. The idea of clicking through layers of analytics, sorting every category, and trying to determine which post was technically “best” felt impossible.
One post might have reached more people. Another might have received more comments. Another might have been saved. Another might have led to a follow. Which one wins? And did I really need to know?
The more variables we added, the farther I felt from a useful conclusion.
So we simplified the entire process.
Two Metrics. That Was Enough.
Instead of examining everything Instagram could possibly tell me, I looked at only two categories:
My top five posts by reach
My top five posts by interactions
That was it.
Then I reviewed those posts and asked a few simple questions:
What was the image?
What was the post about?
What might have made someone stop?
What might have made someone respond?
Once I looked at the posts this way, the patterns became surprisingly clear.
My highest-reach posts tended to include an immediate visual reason to stop: a colorful painting, an inviting studio shot, a plein air scene, an artist at work, or an unusual image.
My highest-interaction posts tended to include more meaning: a personal story, an artistic challenge, a specific decision, a milestone, or a moment from the life surrounding the painting.
The strongest posts often combined both. A visually compelling image. And one meaningful way into it.
The lesson was not that I needed to completely change my content. It was a refinement.
Show the Art. Then Give People a Way In.
The next direction for my personal art content became clear:
Show the art, then give people one meaningful way into it.
That way in might be:
A specific decision I made while painting
Something unexpected that happened
The place where I was working
A challenge I gave myself
A personal story connected to the image
A workshop, submission, or milestone
One honest thought about becoming a working artist
The art remains at the center. But the life surrounding the art helps people connect with it.
This approach isn’t just for Instagram. It can work across all of my platforms. On Facebook, where I already have a responsive audience, it can deepen the connection. On Instagram, it may help unfamiliar people understand more quickly who I am, what I make, and why they might want to follow.
And for me, it feels natural.
It is not a reinvention. It is a refinement.
What the 90-Day Test Actually Proved
The test did not prove that every number will always go up. It proved something more useful. A focused marketing practice creates information.
Sometimes that information confirms that something is working.
Sometimes it reveals that one platform is behaving differently from another.
Sometimes it helps you see that your audience is not who you assumed it was.
And sometimes it points toward a small adjustment rather than a complete change in strategy.
The key is giving the practice enough time to show you something. Looking at your metrics every day can make every rise feel important and every dip feel alarming. It encourages constant reaction.
A longer, focused period allows patterns to emerge.
The purpose of analytics is not to make artists become data analysts. It’s to help us make a more informed next move.
Try This With Your Own Work
You do not need to examine every number available to you. Start small.
Choose a meaningful period of time. Perhaps 30 or 90 days. When you’ve been making a reasonably consistent effort.
Then look at:
Your five posts with the highest reach
Your five posts with the most interactions
There may be overlap. That’s useful too. Study the posts themselves, not just the numbers.
What do they seem to have in common?
What made the images interesting?
What stories or details invited people to respond?
What feels worth repeating or refining?
You can also use ChatGPT or another AI tool to help you spot patterns. Share a description of the images (or carousel images or videos) and the captions, the basic results, and your own observations. Be sure to add: “My goal is not to become a data analyst. My goal is to use the available information to make a more informed and manageable next move.”
But remember: you don’t need the most sophisticated analysis. You need an analysis that you can actually use.
The best marketing plan is not the one with the most metrics. It is the one that helps you understand what to try next. Without making you want to run away.
